Three
New York City Men Sentenced to 10 Years
in Prison in Connection with Jersey City
Heroin Mill

TRENTON
– Attorney General Anne Milgram announced
that three Bronx, N.Y., men were sentenced
to state prison today on drug and conspiracy
charges resulting from an August 2007 raid
on a major heroin mill in Jersey City.

The
three defendants were among five men arrested
in August 2007 when the New Jersey State
Police, the Division of Criminal Justice
and members of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration High-Intensity Drug Trafficking
Area (HIDTA) Task Force executed a search
warrant and discovered the heroin mill in
an apartment on Clinton Avenue in Jersey
City.

Rafael
Richiez, 28, Lenin Torres, 24, and Pedro
Torres, 22, were each sentenced to 10 years
in state prison with four years of parole
ineligibility by Superior Court Judge Melvin
S. Kracov in Hudson County. Each man pleaded
guilty on Aug. 26 to charges of first-degree
possession of heroin with intent to distribute
and second-degree conspiracy. Deputy Attorney
General Philip Mogavero prosecuted the cases
for the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs
& Organized Crime Bureau.

Detectives
and federal agents seized more than seven
pounds of heroin and $8,364 in cash when
they raided the heroin mill on August 2,
2007. Prior to the raid, Richiez and Lenin
Torres were arrested when they left the
apartment building on Clinton Avenue and
started to drive away in a stolen Range
Rover which had been linked by investigators
to prior drug trafficking activity. Pedro
Torres left the apartment soon after, along
with Joseph Agramonte, 34, and Rudy Torres,
35, both of Bronx, N.Y. They also were detained
and ultimately arrested.

Further
investigation revealed that an active heroin
mill was being operated in the apartment
building. A search warrant was executed
and detectives found a large-scale heroin
mill in the third-floor apartment capable
of putting out many thousands of individual
doses of heroin, known as “decks,”
from the raw heroin on hand. Two grinding
stations were set up, with cutting agents,
boxes of empty plastic bags and thousands
of packaged decks stamped "DOA."

The
Division of Criminal Justice obtained a
state grand jury indictment on Dec. 18,
2007, charging all five men arrested at
the time of the raid with second-degree
conspiracy, first-degree maintaining or
operating a heroin production facility,
first-degree manufacturing of heroin, first-degree
possession of heroin with intent to distribute,
and third-degree possession of heroin with
intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of
a school.

The
charges in the indictment remain pending
against Agramonte and Rudy Torres. The indictment
is merely an accusation and they are presumed
innocent until proven guilty.

Attorney
General Milgram credited all of the detectives
and agents that conducted the investigation
for the New Jersey State Police Drug Trafficking
North Unit and Organized Crime Control Bureau
- North; the Division of Criminal Justice
Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau; and
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
HIDTA Task Force.